9. A Final Note

The bike as shipped back to Sydney for a second repair assessment. Water was found in the gear box and transmission (as well as the engine); consequently BMW could not guarantee the bike's future performance. The final outcome agreed between the BMW technicians and the insurance company was to write off the GS. The cheque is now in my account.

8. Back Home!

Unfortunately, after 2 weeks in Cairns the bike is still out of action. It's running, but not 100% so will need more work.

After this hanging around and my lack of enthusiasm to carry on with another bike (from the small choice of secondhand bikes available) I've decided to return home after only 3,000 out of the 16,000 kms.

A very dissapointing end to the trip,and I'm pretty fed up at the moment.

Probably the best way to cheer myself up is to start planning the next one :)

7. Back in Cairns!

A dry Motorbike visiting another Mos(s)man

For those of you who don't ride enduro/dirt motorbikes you probably don't think of motorbikes crossing rivers. But, with a bit of skill, and if the water is shallow enough you can just ride your bike through like a 4WD. Anyway, despite having successfully crossed a handful of rivers in the past, I made a right hash of it yesterday.

After a few 4WD vehicles had crossed the creek north of Mossman Qld, I went for it. I managed to cross about 80% of the river and then went down a 4WD wheel rut, possibly took in some water, the engine stalled and the bike and I took an early bath. After pushing the bike out of the water we tried to get it to start, but no luck. And as I only had a standard spark plug socket it didn't fit the Beemer!

Tropical Nth Queensland

Back tracking, two up on Duncan's V-Strom to a campsite I called BMW roadside assist (they sent a flat back ute) and after first pushing the bike back over the creek (why didn't I do that in the first place!), to cut a long story short  I was back in Cairns 6 hours later with the bike. 

Ready for the trip back to Cairns!

First stop on Monday morning will be the Cairns BMW dealer for the verdict. Will it be a quick draining of the water, in which case I will be back on the road with little time lost, or will it be a case of "ordering parts from Germany"! In which case I will have to think of another way to continue the trip around Australia.


Today, a little delayed, Duncan and Christoph continue upwards to Bamaga, it would be nice to be riding with them! I was enjoying the beginning of the dirt roads yesterday. Oh well, I hope it's good news from the workshop tomorrow.

6. Cairns

A short ride to Cairns today, we rode through banana and sugar cane plantations. It threatened to rain, but never did. In Cairns spent three and a half hours wait at the BMW dealer for new tyres. Here is a pic of the new and very cool looking Continental TKC80 rear tyre.

5. Making good progress

Following Coffs Harbour we rode to Noosa where we camped just a few hundred metres from the beach.

Marmot tent and the R1200GS

Sunrise near the Noosa campsite.

Next stop Rockhampton, we didn't stop, just something to eat and a sleep for the night. We left early to make our way to Townsville. Before getting out of Townsville I dropped the bike at a busy junction after an unexpected u-turn by Christoph - no damage. Later that day I got pulled by some nice Queensland cops and given a speeding ticket for 1 point. So an eventful day.

Here's a picture of sunny Townsville where after the long 720 km ride from Rockhampton I had the day off, it's getting warm again. Duncan and Christoph stayed in Ayr for a dive and then joined me in Townsville.

Along The Strand around 08:30.

Next we ride to Cairns, a reasonable 350 kms, where we will change our tyres to 'knobbies' (I'm going with Continental TKC80s) in preparation for the dirt roads/tracks to come.

4. Breakfast in Coffs Harbour

We had a great send off yesterday from our fellow NorthShore Motorcycle Group. Not much to report on the ride up except for a brief blast along Wottin Way.


Here's a picture of the beach in Coffs Harbour where we had breakfast and Duncan's apple crumble pancakes!


Our second day of riding will take us to Noosa for our first night of camping.

3. Some pre-trip stats

Just 4 days to go before we leave Sydney. We are getting a grand send off with a dozen of our fellow motorcycle group members on Sunday, they will stop for breakfast after an hour or so, we will continue on :) ..

Some trip stats...

Riders: Ian McCarthy (GB), Duncan Fish (GB), Christoph Boddem (DE)
Bikes: BMW R1200GS, Suzuki V-Strom DL650, Kawasaki KLR650.

Start: Sunday, 1 July

End: Saturday, 19 August

Distance: 16,500 kms, 10,250 miles

Riding days: 35

Route:

• Sydney
• Coffs Harbour
• Noosa QLD
• Rockhampton QLD
• Townsville QLD
• Cairns QLD
• Cooktown
• Coen
• Weipa turn off
• Bramwell
• Bamaga
• Bramwell
• Coen
• Musgrave Road House
• Dunbar
• Karumba
• Carpentaria
• Burketown
• Calvert
• Borroloola
• Daly Waters Junction
• Kakadu
• Darwin
• Katherine
• Timber Creek
• Kunnurra
• El Questro
• Derby (Kimb Mnts)
• Broome
• Wallal Downs
• Dampier
• Yannarie
• Ningaloo
• Carnarvon (shark bay)
• Monkey Mia
• Geraldton
• Perth
• Kalgoorlie (Nullabor)
• Eucla
• Portland, Vic
• Melbourne
• Cooma
• Sydney

2. Just over two weeks to go.

It's been a while since the first post, but now that the trip is almost underway I'll be making more of an effort. Everything is pretty much ready - pre-trip services booked, off-road tyres organised, emergency toolkit assembled and first aid course booked.

The plan is still to leave on Sunday July 1st. It's pretty cold here in Sydney at the moment (Australian winter) so our first night in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales will be in a motel, but the camping starts the second night in Noosa, Queensland. I'm not so keen on the camping, I mean why would you trade a hot shower, cold beer and dinner in the pub for a cold shower, stewed tea and a packet of freeze dried lamb curry! But, it's not just me on the trip so apparently compromise is required!

We have a third rider joining us 'Christoph' a German dude, but we're trying not to hold that against him. So it's the three of us up and down the tip of Cape York (upper right hand-side of Australia), Christoph leaves around Dunbar, Qld to go back to Sydney and Duncan and I continue on West to the Northern Territory. But, I am getting ahead of myself here, more to follow once we are on the trip.

For now, I have more mundane tasks to address: a 110 question multiple choice on first aid - a pre-requisite for the first aid course and revision for a university exam in Financial Risk Management. All very exciting!

I missed out on supporting a charity on my ride around the world in 2009, but I'm raising money for UNICEF this time, if you'd like to donate, you can do so by clicking here. Thanks for your support :)


...Roll on the 1st of July.

1. First Planning Session

Hello!

Ian McCarthy here, one of two English dudes planning to ride around Australia on motorbikes. My fellow rider Duncan, and I will introduce ourselves more in a later post, but for now a brief overview of the plan.

Yesterday afternoon was our first planning session, so after a few months of casual chat we have committed to making the big trip a reality.  With a large map of Australia spread out on the dining table, coloured post-it notes to mark out the route, cold beers and pizzas on their way we came up with the following:

• Trip dates - July & August 2012 (Australian winter / dry season)
• Trip duration of 8 weeks
• Trip distance of approx. 16,000 kms (10,000 miles) 
• Basic route will start in Sydney and continue anti-clockwise around the coast
• %Dirt - we've not decided on the detailed route yet, but dirt will definitely feature
• Days riding per week - 5 or 6 at around 350 kms per day (230 miles ).
• Camping - there will be some unfortunately, but I may learn to enjoy it!

I'll be riding my BMW R1200GS - Triple Black (2011)
& Duncan his Suzuki DL650 - VStrom.

That's it for this post, more to follow soon.